PM promises biggest road building blitz for 50 years
DAVID Cameron will today unveil plans for the biggest roadbuilding programme for almost half a century, resulting in hundreds of miles of extra lanes on Britain’s motorways and trunk roads.
Embracing what Margaret Thatcher called ‘the great car economy’, the Prime Minister will announce a £15billion boost for more than 100 road projects to be completed by the end of the decade.
The schemes, which will be outlined in next month’s autumn statement, include finally putting the A303 into a tunnel past the notorious Stonehenge bottleneck, and widening the A1 north of Newcastle and trans-Pennine roads in the north of England.
Mr Cameron’s announcement echoes the ‘roads for prosperity’ scheme unveiled by
‘Quicker journey times and more jobs’
Mrs Thatcher in 1989 to boost ‘the great car economy’, which promised the largest expansion of the roads network since the Romans. But many schemes were quietly abandoned in the mid-1990s after environmental protests and spending cuts.
Addressing the Confederation of British Industry’s conference in London today, Mr Cameron will say the Government is to set out the first-ever long term ‘ roads investment strategy’ for the UK.
The programme will improve the lives of commuters and support business and enterprise across the country, he will claim. He will admit many roads projects have been ‘stalled for years’ but insist the new investment will mean they will now go ahead.
‘Our long-term economic plan is turning Britain round. And nowhere is this better demonstrated than in what we are doing on infrastructure,’ he will say.
‘We inherited a huge budget deficit and frankly, as we went about finding savings, it would have been easy for us to cancel Crossrail, cancel HS2, cancel projects that were politically controversial. But we didn’t.
‘We know to secure Britain’s future, we need world-class infrastructure. Families need it to get around; businesses need it to create jobs; we need it to compete with the world and deliver economic security.’
The scheme will be ‘the biggest, boldest and most far-reaching road improvement programme in four decades’, Mr Cameron will say.
‘Hundreds of extra lane miles on our motorways and trunk roads. The green light given to major projects that have been stalled for years. Action to improve some of the most important arteries in our country – like the A303 and the A1 – which for too long have held parts of our country back.
‘This will be nothing less than a roads revolution – one which will lead to quicker journey times, more jobs, and businesses boosted.’
The £15billion investment between 2015-16 and 2020-21 will be the biggest upgrade to our roads in a generation, officials say, and will take total spending on the network over the decade to £24billion.
The Highways Agency will soon be spun off into a government- owned company responsible for more than 4,300 miles of motorways and major roads. Two new bodies will be created – one to monitor the performance of the road network and the other to champion the needs of road users.
Unions claim the move is a precursor to privatisation of the roads network, which has been valued at £111billion, and more tolls being charged.
Chris Todd, of the Campaign for Better Transport, which promotes improved public transport, walking and cycling, said the plans ‘will trash protected areas and do nothing for the economy’.
He added: ‘It makes no sense to spend billions ploughing more lanes of traffic through our National Parks or desecrating irreplaceable historic sites like Stonehenge.’